who used Rose as a battering-ram to force the adoption of the Gregg sys- tem of shorthand instead of the Pit- man. In Public School No. 44, in the Bronx, the boy began winning medals as a fifty-yard sprinter. He was a fair runner, but he won races by intellect rather than by leg muscles. He made a profound study of starters and was able to beat the gun by sufficient mar- gin to break the tape ahead of fleeter but smaller-brained lads. A steal of two yards enabled him to win the gold medal for eighty-five-pound sprinters at an interscholàstic meet in Madison Square Garden in 1 914. He was near the foot of his class in English Compo- sition, but when a medal was offered in a city-wide competition in English Composition, he won it. Entering the High School of Commerce, he won all kinds of medals and cups in short- hand contests, although he was repeat- edly threatened with expulsion because his marks hovered around zero in all non-medal-bearing subjects. His moth- er was wild with pride in those days, but has been unimpressed by his later successes. \Vhen he told her last year of the sensational opening of the Billy ..";$* m " Ï! ' :: :. . . ..." .. ... . .....:.:. :-.... ;":::" , .. .. j;.: '''11' .. ........ t I lj . :. l :::,..:-:." , . t ... . ..... .' ...... . ..... . ...... . , .. . . . . . .. . . Rose Music Hall, she asked, "\Vhere 1 s the medal?" Rose's exploits in high-schoo] short- hand classes had attracted the attention of Gregg, who was on the lookout for boys to train for service in the war be- tween Gregg and Pitman. By able salesmanship, Gregg has caused his sys- tem to supplant Pitman in most of the schools of the country, but there was one obstacle to his complete triumph; the great majority of the court re- porters had been trained in the Pit- man system, which was a century old. For many years most of the world's-championship -contests had been won by court reporters. Gregg wanted to train boys to beat the best of the Pitman professionals. He took Rose under his wing and started to point him toward the world's shorthand cham- pionship, just as Doc Kearns built up Jack Dempsey or as Ancil Hoffman groomed Max Baer for the world's heavyweight championship. Rose un- derwent a terrific training grind. Three men dictated to him in relays at in- creasing rates of speed. Finally, the dic- tators broke under the strain, and a special phonograph was constructed by ,....w,é ;::::::... ..'" , (;I' 4: oR''''' h 23 the Víctor Company which fired words at Rose at rates as high as three hun- dred and fifty a minute. During his early months at the Gregg training camp, Rose continued to attend high school and win amateur prizes. He caused consternation among his backers and bottle-holders by breaking the first finger of his right hand in a fall while skating in Central Park two days be- fore a competition for the interscholastic championship of New York. It would have meant a serious loss of prestige and business for the Gregg system if a Pit- man student had won this match. Rose got the medal in spite of the accident. It was impossible for him to close his damaged finger on a pen, but he stuck the pen through a potato, held the potato in his hand, and won another victory for Gregg. Rose was seventeen years old when he made his first try for the world's professional championship. He went all to pieces and was trampled on by sev- eral Pitman men. During the test he had a nervous breakdown brought on by working fifteen or sixteen hours a day, as he recalls it, before the special phonograph which shot words "Mr. Beal is noted for his fearless treatment of rock gardens." . :